Intersectionality and Men's Different Pathways to Feminist Allyship

What is it about?

This article looks at how men get involved in feminism, and uses the different ways that diverse men engage to make an argument about intersectionality and allyship. It describes a year-long participant-observation and interview study of two gender justice activist groups: Muslim Men Against Domestic Violence and The Sweet Tea Southern Queer Men’s Collective. Comparing the engagement pathways of members of these two groups to the mostly white, heterosexual, Christian men who’s engagement pathways we have studies of, it finds important differences not only between the privileged and marginalized groups of men, but between men who experience different kinds of marginalization. This shows not only that intersectionality needs to be applied to men in their work as feminist allies, but also that men’s experiences of marginalization along other axes can shape their outlook towards feminism and ally ship.

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Why is it important?

There are ongoing conversations about men as feminist allies, but they tend to treat men as a unitary category - despite decades of intersectional theory arguing against this understanding of social groups. This article illustrates how differences between men become important in our understanding of men, feminism, allyship, and intersectionality.